( sheila’s crunchy delight— a bite natural )

by marian wolbers

“i actually burned the granola. that’s how this whole business all got started,” laughs the gentle baker, sheila kline, who created sheila’s crunchydelight, a line of all-natural, preservative-free granolas.

“my fiancé’s father—who likes granola—was coming to visit, and i was about to throw the batch out.” instead, she threw out the brownest bits, made a new light batch, and mixed it all together. the result was a hearty “you should start selling this !” from everyone around, and a signature granola was born.

“now i over-bake my granolas. that’s how they get browner than the pale types you see in some stores,” she confesses. no matter which variety you go for, all have a count-on-it crunchiness, and a caramel-y toastiness.

as the trees change their wardrobes from green to brown and gold and crimson, sheila can be found in the cool air, selling her wares in boyertown’s open-air farmers’ market, underneath a red awning. “the ‘original recipe’ granola is my bestseller most of the year,” she says, “but right now, the ‘pumpkin season’ variety is most popular.” inspiration for this flavor came from a son who loves pumpkin pie and all things pumpkin. ingredients include rolled oats, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, wheat germ, canola oil, honey, a touch of brown sugar (for flavor), cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, vanilla, and salt.

( sheila kline, the gentle baker behind sheila's crunchy delight

photo courtesy of sheila kline )

crackling hard on its heels in popularity this fall and into winter are kline’s ‘sweet and spicy holiday nuts’—you know, those almond-pecan-walnut mixes that are covered with yummy yuletide flavors, the ones that keep calling your fingers back to the party bowl for “just one more handful.” these are gourmet gift quality with their quirky-comfy blend of brown sugar, butter, cayenne, cumin, cinnamon, and orange zest.

( granola-love at its finest

photographs by marian wolbers )

in the spring, the ‘banana-walnut’ granola and ‘blueberry buckle’ types, made with lemon zest, sell fastest.

how to—

granola is a fairly time-consuming goody to make, so with all the baking out of the way—thanks to kline—all a body needs to do is decide on mode of consumption.

granola is so versatile that you can…

•  eat it right outta the bag.
• shake a few tablespoons into a cereal bowl, and let it swim in cow milk or soy beverage.
• swirl it into breakfast yogurt for the perfectly fun mouth-challenge of cool-smooth texture punctuated by teeth-gnashing and crunch-crushing of grains.
• or, toss it on top of ice cream—especially the ‘s’mores and more’ granola, which really should have been named ‘truly guilty pleasure.’

the secret to the s’mores granola is its marvelous graham crackers, handmade. “i couldn’t find a graham cracker on the market that didn’t have preservatives and that i liked the taste of,” explains kline. so back to the kitchen she went. “it’s labor-intensive, but it’s worth it. i like that molasses flavor in my graham crackers.” not surprisingly, the crackers are brown-brown, slightly over-baked, too—just like the oats.

another surprise is a ‘barbee-q’ granola (yes, friends—msg-free !), wonderful alone or zippy in meatloaf. you can ask kline for the recipe in person or on her facebook page. this zesty product is a classic example of how creative she is.

the ‘chocolate chip’ granola works well alone or on dessert, or, using a recipe kline hands out, as an ingredient in chocolate chip granola cookies (buy 1 ½ cups to make these).

early start, high hopes—

kline’s been making granola ever since her children were small, using a recipe from her mom. “i wanted to make it more healthy, so i took out the sugar and now use honey and a little brown sugar just for flavor,” she says.

now making granola commercially for three years, kline has five wholesale customers and hopes to grow the business. sensitive to the blossoming demand for gluten-free products, she’s been developing a new formula for granola using oats from a hybrid seed (grown away from other oat crops), and containing no wheat bran.

she’s hoping for more outlets in the future, including interstate crunching opportunities.

look for sheila’s crunchy delight at:

• kolb’s farm store, spring city
• west reading farmers’ market (may -november only)
• weaver's orchard, morgantown
• shollenberger organic poultry at  shillington farmers’ market
• fields & french hens bakery at the fairgrounds farmers’ market, reading
• boyertown farmers’ market (every second & fourth saturday)
• pinnacle ridge winery, kutztown

also remember to search for sheila’s crunchy delight on facebook.